fbpx
Hero Illustration
0 Comments
Bali, Mitrais, Mitrais Life

Abubakar (Abu) Siddiq – A Passion for IT in Unlikely Places

In this edition’s Featured Employee, we want to highlight the story of Abubakar Siddiq.

With a passion for reading that has truly shaped his career (and become digital over time!), and a love of caring for his cats, Abu has a true love of software which directly informs and empowers his role as Senior Management of Talent Acquisition and Development at Mitrais.

Born in Jakarta in 1971, Abu was born into a very middle-class family, his father was a civil servant in the Ministry of Public Works (now the Kementerian PUPR) and his mother was a homemaker. Despite being diagnosed with ADHD and learning difficulties earlier in his life, once Abu was able to read, he was completely unstoppable, as he powered through 32 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica, despite his limited understanding of English at that time. Since then, he reads daily and just about everything, and is even a member of The British Council Library.

It is this passion for reading that brought Abu to working in IT. In 1984 he began reading books on IT, particularly ones on Ashton-Tate Corporation (a US Based software company best known for developing the popular dBASE database application) as he continued to consume any books, he could get his hands on. It is from here that Abu fell in love with IT and software. Abu’s uncle, who worked for the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in New York, bought him books on IT + an Apple Macintosh, and from there it was a logical step into programming. While Abu wasn’t quite yet aware of what programming was, he began replicating the concepts he found in books, which led to him getting some true understanding of programming and eventually getting freelance jobs to make ends meet.

It was years of programming and software design later that Abu went to university, despite Indonesia not having any kind of reputable IT degree at that time! Despite his lazy student attitude, he chose to study management, continuing on-and-off part-time jobs in programming. While waiting for Friday prayers, while once again reading a programming book, a man approached him and began a conversation on database programming. Long story short, this man owned a company nearby and gave Abu his first career opportunity in IT. From ‘the IT guy’ to ‘the IT consultant’ to ‘the IT project manager’ to a strategic management consultant and lecturer at Binus International and finally (for now!) Senior Management of Talent Acquisition and Development at Mitrais, Abu has grown and developed his career from meagre beginnings with plenty of hard work and an ongoing underlying passion for software and IT.

Having built many HR information systems in his previous career, Abu discovered a passion for developing talent in others, making the role of Senior Management of Talent Acquisition and Development an ideal fit for his skills and passions. Having learnt to communicate with anyone through a student exchange program in Germany in 1988, Abu prides himself on his ability to work well and communicate clearly with the many personalities and nationalities across the Mitrais business. His personal motto of “the more you give, the more you get” truly applies to anyone with a role in talent acquisition, and Mitrais is so proud to have Abu as part of our team and a member of our family.

Contact us to learn more!

Please complete the brief information below and we will follow up shortly.

    ** All fields are required
    Leave a comment